Italtel launches IoT solution for healthcare and smart metering

Telecommunications company Italtel has launched a new range of services to address the Internet of Things (IoT) market.

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Italtel’s IoT platform is being aimed at all enterprises, with a specific focus on the healthcare and smart monitoring markets, the latter including gas and water companies and building maintenance.

Italtel says that its IoT platform will enable enterprises, utility companies and public sector administrators to enhance business efficiency and improve public safety and quality of life. It uses cloud computing to collect data from a variety of sensors and meters over several different networks before converting the raw data into useful insights and information.

Meanwhile, for the smart health market, Italtel has developed DoctorLINK, an end-to-end solution that enables continuity of care after a patient returns home from hospital.

Based on the open-source WebRTC technology introduced by the WC3 consortium, DoctorLINK uses contextual communication to provide real-time services in order to “simplify the experience of outpatients and improve interaction between them and the hospital”.

The solution can also act as a therapy manager and scheduler, collecting healthcare data from a number of IoT sensors to track a patient’s wellbeing in real-time. Such sensors can include a Bluetooth-connected pulse reader, but executives at the firm say that other options are available, so long as they feature Bluetooth connectivity. Bluetooth is used to connect the sensor – and the collected data – to the Samsung tablets which are provided to the hospital.

IoT and bridges

Italtel’s CEO Stefano Pileri said that the firm is leveraging its experience in network design and real-time communications technology to “add value to the IoT market, which promises to completely revolutionize our way of living and working.”

Italtel says that it has already deployed its new platform to monitor a building’s power consumption – significantly reducing energy expenses – and infrastructure, controlling the stability of key structures such as bridges and enhancing public safety. A number of other projects are also under way, extending the platform into other new and emerging areas, such as smart farming.

Internet of Business caught up with Italtel during the show, and saw healthcare and smart metering demos, as well as an example of the solution was used to monitor the condition of a bridge in Italy. Representatives also told us how its healthcare solution is already being used by a hospital in Genoa for self-care from home, with further trials expected throughout Italy and the rest of Europe in the coming months.